<\/p>\n
\u201cThe enemies a person makes by taking a stand will have more respect for him than the friends he makes by being on the fence\u201d (Anonymous).<\/p>\n
CONVICTION IS \u201cTHE STATE OF BEING CONVINCED.\u201d If we\u2019re convicted (i.e., convinced) that a certain belief is accurate and that the belief is important, then we hold it in our hearts deeply and steadfastly. A conviction is more than a whim, a guess, or an opinion. It\u2019s an element in a person\u2019s deep-down belief system, a part of that person\u2019s principles. And people of strong conviction would rather die than compromise the principles they are convicted of.<\/p>\n
It should be obvious that we could do with a lot more conviction in the world. Too often, we find that people don\u2019t really believe anything strongly enough that their ideas would qualify as convictions. And not only that, what convictions we do have are often those we\u2019ve picked up from social media and entertainment outlets. So most of us would profit from periodically going back and reexamining our principles. Do we really believe what we say we believe? Are we willing to make these things a matter of conviction? And would we go so far as to lay down our lives for our convictions?<\/p>\n
Conviction doesn\u2019t guarantee the truthfulness of a belief, of course. Even if we would die for what we believe, that doesn\u2019t mean we\u2019re not mistaken. \u201cMartyrdom has always been a proof of the intensity, never of the correctness of a belief\u201d (Arthur Schnitzler).<\/p>\n
All else being equal, however, it is better to be people of conviction than not to be. The only alternative is to spend our lives sitting on the fence on every question \u2014 never sure, never taking a stand, and never having the respect of any thoughtful person.<\/p>\n
Perhaps we\u2019d do better if we quit paying so much attention to how our convictions are paying off at the present moment. Having convictions requires certain qualities of character, and one of them is trust<\/em>. Two others are patience<\/em> and longsuffering<\/em>. Just because a principle seems to be headed for defeat right now, that doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s not worth standing up for. It\u2019s natural that we want to be on the winning side, but conviction is content if it\u2019s just on the side of wisdom<\/em>.<\/p>\n \u201cHope is not the conviction that something will turn out well but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out\u201d (V\u00e1clav Havel).<\/p>\n Gary Henry \u2013 WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com<\/p>\n